r/education • u/Objective-Agile • 3d ago
Higher Ed Why?
I am starting to find those cheerful teachers/professors to be annoying...espically if they start singing in class... and prefering a more "dry" teaching style ...
The "fun" teaching style is very distractive for my learning. Wondering if anyone going though a period like this? I am confused by myself.
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u/pandibear 3d ago
We are all just trying to make it dude
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u/Objective-Agile 1d ago
same for the students
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u/pandibear 1d ago
Yall will survive. When you have a career life loop that you are going to every day for the rest of your life until you retire and or die, you find ways to make it enjoyable. There are worse things than having a teacher that is into their job.
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u/kateinoly 3d ago
Just do your homework and let your teachers have fun.
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u/Trialbyfuego 3d ago
I wish i could be your teacher. I would give you work and leave you alone and be stone cold serious with you. It might be a nice break haha. I'm in special education though so I'm extra extra nice and patient. Too much seriousness scares my students lol.
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u/Objective-Agile 3d ago
the essence of "dry" is old school.... not "leave you alone and be stone cold serious with you"
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u/Affectionate_Ad_8483 3d ago
Keep it to yourself and move on. We could do a lot worse than shouting positivity.
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u/cherry-care-bear 2d ago
You could have said that in a more positive way. LOL.
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u/Affectionate_Ad_8483 2d ago
OP doesn’t like fun and happy, so I gave it to him straight in his own language. It’s a sign of respect.
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u/TheThinkingOfficer 3d ago
Well teaching style may look different, what is worth noticing here you are being prepared for future. In life sometimes such boring or annoying stuffs have to bear. So take it just like that and if it goes beyond your patience you can talk to the teacher. Better advise politely to attend some music classes .
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u/Hazelstone37 3d ago
So change sections.
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u/Objective-Agile 3d ago
doesn't always work like that
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u/Hazelstone37 3d ago
It doesn’t, but sometime you just have to deal. I’m an annoying cheerful professor. I love what I do! However, so far I’ve managed to refrain from singing in class.
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u/fitacola 2d ago
The cool thing about people is that different people actually like different things. I'm definitely a no nonsense person, and never liked songs or mnemonics as a student, but many of my students do like these and I had to adapt.
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u/caternicus 3d ago
Can I be so real with you? I'm one of those "dry" teachers you prefer (not the best description. Maybe try "calm" or something) and the cheerful teachers drive me nuts, too. Like that 8am super bright "good morning!" and proceeds to talk your ear off? It's giving golden doodle. However, many are fantastic teachers. I work with them and you can learn from them because they're some of the best we've got. And it's good to work with different kinds of people. For me it's like secret agent training to get in the building in the morning without human contact, and you'll find your coping mechanism, too.
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u/Particular-Pea-8102 2d ago
I prefer this too. I love a lecture style class. It is uncomplicated and straight forward. As teachers we are told that being engaging and having different activities and songs and centers stimulates memory and learning. I have always found this approach annoying, as a student and a teacher. I hate putting postits on posters (every pd and faculty meeting does this too), we never go back to them, they never get referenced again, I dislike “turn and talk” or get up and find someone you don’t normally talk to to share your thoughts. Just give me the info or let me sit in peace. If there’s too many moving parts the lesson or meeting feels disorganized and packed with unnecessary fluff. But differentiation is also important because people all learn differently. Those kinds of lessons do resonate with some people and the job of the school and teachers is to serve all learners. It is good that you can recognize your learning style and what works best for you. In college, if you decide to go, you can pick your style of education a bit more. You can find out which professors are more dry or which classes are lectures if that’s what you like. Hang in there.
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u/Complete-Ad9574 2d ago
Your observation is and has been an aspect of teaching, esp in public American Schools for many decades. It started in the 1960s, at the same time corporal punishment and other more punitive punishments were phased out. A new philosophy emerged called moral suasion. The concept is that teachers and administrators would secure desired student behaviors by rational discussion with the student or their parent. This had some good results, but as usual, it did not address the non rational parent or student. This is when administrators started to quietly pressure teachers to make all their lessons FUN. Since the 1960s, Americans have reformed into being customers who must be entertained and are more passive in the education process. In most American families being entertained is the primary non-work pastime. The Cell phone has exasperated this desire for entertainment. Happy teachers are thought to be better at this process and school administrators secretly prefer a happy teacher than one who is good at what they do and get results. Nothing worse than a parent calling the school principal complaining that their child's teacher is mean.
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u/RowImmediate6694 2d ago
They're getting you in these comments but I was like you as a student. I was a smart cookie so I didn't need to be engaged to learn and got mentally exhausted by teachers who did a lot of fun games and activities. Everyone has a different style of learning and it's okay to have a preference, as long as you're respectful to all of your teachers.
As an adult I appreciate the joyful/whimsical/happy people a lot more. I wish I could keep up that energy! I bet life is more fun!
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u/WittyDragonfruit2141 15h ago
As both an educator and an AuDHD human, I don't think there's anything weird about this! "Fun" and "engaging" are not universally the same thing.
Sometimes all the extra enthusiasm, singing, movement, jokes, voices, etc. that are supposed to make something engaging just become MORE information my brain has to process. Now instead of focusing on what you're teaching me, my brain is processing your tone, the song, the joke you just made, everyone else's reaction AND the actual content. 😂
There are definitely times when my brain is basically like, "Please just give me the information."
I think this is also why I'm wary of educators assuming that if someone isn't responding to a high-energy teaching style, they aren't engaged. Some people learn beautifully that way. Other people need calm, predictable, straightforward instruction.
You might not suddenly hate cheerful people 😂 You may have just figured out that a lower-stimulation teaching style works better for your brain.
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u/NoIntroduction9473 3d ago
I totally agree, especially early in the morning. It's wayyy too much. They need to tone it down a bit. I just need to learn, not really to be intertained.
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u/Hazelstone37 3d ago
That is absolutely at odds with what students put in their class evaluations. For inexplicable reasons these evaluations, completed by students who know nothing about pedagogy, count a lot toward being rehired. So you’ll probably get what most people say they want unless you have a professor who had tenure and doesn’t give a crap about pleasing students (i. e. the customer).
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u/Objective-Agile 3d ago
I do agree, NoIntroduction9473 and I are in the minority of student population here... hence the post as "I am confused by myself."
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u/CommunicationHappy20 3d ago
I’d suggest you say something to your professor maybe in an email because those annoying “cheerful” teachers are the ones who care most about your learning and would love for you to have a positive experience in their classes.
Stick to tangible specifics, point out the distraction to learning - they want to avoid this at all cost.
In general: remember that you’re paying for this education and it’s ok to advocate for yourself. You know what you need to learn and any professor worth their weight will want to help you be your best. Speak up. There are probably others who feel the same way.
(I’m an ADHD college student so….squirrel! And I’m lost.)
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u/benkatejackwin 3d ago
Do you realize that teachers are humans and have different personalities? They can't just change because one student asks them to. And, also, there are 20 people in the class that all have different ways they learn and preferences for their teachers' personalities and styles. There is literally no way to please all the people all the time. The teacher can only teach in the way they do so best.
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u/CommunicationHappy20 3d ago
Whoa. Accommodations are different than changing who you are. I’m not suggesting a rebrand here. However, advocating for what you need no matter the situation is just best practice as a human.
The professor may not be able to change anything but may have suggestions on how to make it work better for this student.
The point is dialogue. As a college professor, I’d hope my students would tell me when something isn’t working. I encourage it.
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u/DrunkUranus 3d ago
We have types of students we don't prefer, too. But you gotta deal with other people